ESPLAT 2025 conference: Scientific thinking in challenging times

Interdisciplinary texts connect Psychology and English by presenting psychological concepts in a foreign language. They introduce students to psychological ideas while simultaneously supporting vocabulary acquisition in English through meaningful contexts. This is particularly important as vocabulary acquisition is fundamental to foreign language learning (cf. Zarei & Mahmoodzadeh, 2014). Furthermore, this approach fosters scientific thinking by making scientific texts – often written in English – more accessible and engaging for students.
This dissertation project investigates learning strategies, namely different types of glosses, that support incidental vocabulary learning while reading an English text about the bystander effect. The research question is the following: What are the effects of textual and pictorial glosses on incidental vocabulary learning, text comprehension and motivation in first-year secondary school students?
To answer this question, a 2x2 factorial design is used. The factors are textual glosses in the form of English definitions (presented or not) and pictorial glosses in the form of sketches (presented or not) for the target words in the text. After completing a pretest, the students will work with a website. The three experimental groups will see either (1) textual definitions, (2) pictorial definitions, or (3) a combination of both, while the control group will not receive any support. After reading, the students will complete a questionnaire regarding their motivation, before solving text comprehension and vocabulary tasks. One week later, a delayed post-test will assess the same categories.
It is expected that the combined glosses will support incidental vocabulary learning the most, while all types of glosses will promote text comprehension and motivation (cf. Bukhari & Dewey, 2023). The results of this study may offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of gloss modalities, contributing to the development of foreign language teaching material that enhances both scientific thinking and linguistic competence.